More merging Iowa school districts on the near horizon

Another round of Iowa school district consolidation is likely in the years ahead due to dwindling rural populations and the expiration of a state provision that allows districts with declining enrollment to recoup some budget losses, state educators say.

Fourteen districts will merge to become seven in July. Residents in the Clearfield school system, which educated 27 southern Iowa children this year, voted to dissolve their district effective July 1.

As a result, Iowa will start the 2014-15 academic year with 338 school districts. The state had 367 districts a decade ago. In 1990, there were 430.